Fbi Agents Sew Up An Arrest In Boy Scout Patch Scam

August 12, 1993|By Peter Kendall, Tribune Staff Writer.

If only there were a Boy Scout merit badge for counterfeiting through embroidery, Michael W. Welsh might be a candidate to receive one.

He has other accomplishments for which more traditional civics badges would seem appropriate. He served on the De Kalb City Council for eight years. He got 43 percent of the vote in De Kalb's mayoral election in April.

But now, how about a badge for seeing the FBI in action, up close, as they make an arrest? Michael W. Welsh has earned that one too.

At the 1993 Boy Scout Jamboree in Bowling Green, Va., Welsh, a Scouting volunteer, was arrested earlier this week on charges he allegedly peddled bootleg versions of the badges Boy Scouts earned for attending the gathering, authorities said.

Welsh might not have known that this jamboree, like all Boy Scout jamborees, would be crawling with FBI agents.

"I guess people don't know that a lot of FBI agents are involved in Scouting," said Wilber Garrett, a Boy Scout leader and FBI agent headquartered in Richmond, Va.

It was another Boy Scout leader and FBI agent, Dan Estrem, who was attending the jamboree when he saw Welsh selling unauthorized Boy Scout patches, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Virginia.

Welsh, who owns a De Kalb company that makes embroidered patches for the Boy Scouts and other clients, was allegedly selling the badges from his 1988 Ford Bronco, which bears Illinois license plates that read "PATCHS 1," authorities said.

At jamborees, events held every four years that attract tens of thousands of Boy Scouts, a huge barter economy springs up and patches serve as the coin of the realm.

Like any economy, the patch economy has its own rules. The Boy Scouts want to keep the trading as clean as their image, so they prohibit adults from trading with youths, believing the adults might have an unfair advantage.

And among the most valuable badges are those representing past jamborees.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Welsh sold counterfeit 1993 jamboree badges with a value of at least $2,500.

After a hearing before a U.S. magistrate, Welsh was released on his own recognizance and ordered to appear before another magistrate in Virginia on Thursday for a second hearing.

The specific charges against him allege that he violated federal copyright and trademark laws and transported the unauthorized badges over state lines.

If convicted, he could face up to 5 years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

Welsh did not return phone calls after messages were left at his De Kalb home. Prosecutors in Virginia said Welsh did not have an attorney at his first hearing and no attorney representing him has contacted them since.

His company, Welsh Industries, makes embroidered patches and employs "50 to 60" people in De Kalb, a company official said.

According to the affidavit, FBI Agent Estrem became suspicious when he saw Welsh's car parked at Ft. A.P. Hill, where the jamboree was taking place until some 35,000 Scouts broke camp Tuesday.

Estrem, a 10-year veteran of the bureau, began talking with Welsh, who told Estrem that he was selling patches that were not made with authorization from the Boy Scouts, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit was filed to get a search warrant to open several boxes in the car; the boxes may have contained more counterfeit patches.

Investigators on Wednesday would not disclose what that search warrant discovered.

Estrem's affidavit also said that Welsh had been warned in the past not to distribute unauthorized patches.

"The Boy Scouts of America officially advised Mr. Welsh by letter that he was not to bring items produced by him to the National Boy Scouts Jamboree," the affidavit said.

One especially unadorned but helpful description of the importance of badges to Scouts reads like this:

"Collecting Boy Scout badges is a hobby enjoyed worldwide by Scouters. The National Jamboree is an opportunity for both the leaders and the Scouts to trade patches among themselves to enhance their collections."

That description was in an FBI press release and was written by an FBI agent who, coincidentally, also happens to be involved in Scouting...